No wonder they’re after the whistleblowers. Each new leak further proves government/corporate criminality and lies with documented evidence. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine NSA agents working for tech companies, just like how the CIA infiltrated news media in the Operation Mockingbird campaign.
The disclosure that taxpayers’ money was used to cover the companies’ compliance costs raises new questions over the relationship between Silicon Valley and the NSA. Since the existence of the program was first revealed by the Guardian and the Washington Post on June 6, the companies have repeatedly denied all knowledge of it and insisted they only hand over user data in response to specific legal requests from the authorities.
To be fair Obama, like all modern presidents, are just the salespeople for institutions committing such crimes against American citizens and the world.
A couple weeks ago Obama was interviewed on “The Tonight Show”. In response to a question from Leno about whether it’s safe for Americans to travel abroad in light of a heightened terror alert, he replied “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately”. While he probably meant it’s unfortunate that the rate of car accident fatalities is so high, it could also be his conscience (if he has one) admitting the actual threat posed by terrorism is so far less than car crashes and other causes of death, it is indeed weak justification for vastly disproportionate government spending. Regardless of interpretation, he was actually telling the truth.
According to Reason.com, in the period after 9/11 from 2001 to September 2011, only 30 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Data from the 2013 edition of the AFL-CIO’s “Death on the Job” report, shows 70,664 workplace fatalities in the U.S. from 2001 to 2011. According to a Wiki page on U.S. motor vehicle deaths, from 2002 to 2011, 392,760 Americans were killed in car crashes. So in a similar time-frame the number of Americans killed in terrorist attacks were about .04% of the number of Americans killed in work related incidents in the U.S. and .008% of Americans killed in car crashes. Americans are 2,355 times more likely to die on the job and 13,092 times more likely to die on the road than from a terrorist attack.
Of the U.S. government’s $3.5 trillion total expenditure budget for fiscal year 2012,1.4 trillion was defense-related. So military spending is at least 40% of the U.S. budget (a conservative estimate not including black budget projects) for a terror threat that is miniscule compared to actual dangers that kill far more Americans.
Of course one is unlikely to learn this from corporate-stream news because the focus and priorities of corporate media and government spending tell us whose interests they promote and protect. By keeping citizens in a state of ignorance and fear, countless taxpayer dollars can more easily be diverted from essential public services and infrastructure in the name of “homeland security” and “defense” but with a tacit effect of consolidating power and weakening opposition. Rather than make us safer and more secure, U.S. government response to terrorism has had the opposite effect. Now more than ever we must overcome fear and raise awareness of the agenda at the root of the world’s worst problems through self education, questioning corporate media, organizing, strategic actions (or inactions), etc. We also need to start expanding alternatives to the current system (ie. worker owned cooperatives, small local farms and permaculture). The dominant top-heavy political and economic institutions will inevitably have to collapse or transform not only because they may be irreparably corrupt, but are socially and environmentally unsustainable.
I found a VHS tape of an odd and prescient 1982 Sean Connery film called Wrong is Right at a yard sale shortly after 9/11 and was planning a review drawing parallels between it and different aspects of the war on terror. However, I just discovered E.R. Torres wrote a post similar to what I had in mind last year at his interesting Random Thoughts blog. excerpt:
So, one wonders, might there be another director out there who, upon looking at the events surrounding 9/11 and the second Iraqi war, might not also look at the myriad tragedies involved, from the thousands upon thousands dead, the loss of national treasure, the inept leadership, the media manipulation, and the very questionable motivations for engaging in the conflict in the first place…and decide that this too might be good material in the creation of a black comedy? Thing is, someone already did, and they did it a whopping 20 years before the events of 9/11 and the subsequent Iraqi War. I’m talking about 1982′s Wrong Is Right. As directed by Richard Brooks, the movie features Sean Connery in the role of Patrick Hale, an intrepid, world famous reporter who, in the process of criss-crossing the globe, comes to realize he’s landed himself smack dab in the middle of machinations involving the CIA, an Arabian leader whose land is filled with oil, a weapons dealer, a terrorist intent on getting his hands on two mysterious suitcases, and a U.S. presidential election. The various parties involved actively try to manipulate the story Hale perceives and tells, and ultimately what may appear “true” becomes a matter of convenience. To go into too much debate about the story’s plot would be a disservice. Having said that, this now 30 year old film is incredibly prescient. With some minor modifications, this could easily be a black comedy “take” on the buildup to the Iraqi War. The most eerie element of the whole thing is that the movie’s climax takes place on the roof of the World Trade Center.
After the Crash 